Seeing what happens when a knit store gets a blog

I have a knitting shop in Concord, NC. I've been here a year, bringing yarn to the masses. We have regular Knit Nights and there are plans for parties and classes. Stop by if you are in the area, or visit the website at www.raveknits.com and have a look around!

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Why do I never remember to update my blogspot?

October comes to the knit shop

Hello, mailing listers! We have slogged through the month ofSeptember, and here we arrive at the beginning of another autumn. Soonthe cool weather will set in and everyone you know will clamor for youto make them warm cozy things. And lucky you, you'll be able to!

New yarn has come in! All kinds of tasty goodness is waiting to belooked at and knitted into something wonderful. I've taken a pictureof a sampling, just to give you a taste. Come in and look at it - someof them you really just need to see in person.

Is everyone ready for another Knit Night? We've got one coming up onTuesday. We might actually see the return of Patty, who has beenmissing from our group for a while. She's been off being the WickedStepmother in the Old Courthouse Theatre's "Into the Woods". (You canstill see her! One more weekend!) (Extraneous commercial ends now.)This week's Knit Night theme is going to be New Beginnings. Got aproject you've been meaning to start? Bring it in and cast on. Beenintimidated by a sweater or a really hard blanket? Someone will beable to help you out. Don't have a new project? Well, we can help youwith that, too. :)

On sale this week: knitting needles and crochet hooks. StartingSaturday, these necessary tools will be 10% off. Think of buying somelovely Susanne's Rosewood hooks, or stocking up on Lantern Moonneedles.

On a fun note, RaveKnits will be closed the last weekend of the monthfor SAFF. We'll be heading to the high country to see the leaves (I'mtaking my camera this time, dangit!), hang out with the Bond women,talk to the alpacas and buy some yarn. Any requests on what I bringback?

Friday, July 20, 2007

The great yard sale event

I'm having a yard sale in my parking lot tomorrow, weather permitting. For the most part it rains in the evening, so I hadn't been worried. Only I can't help but notice it looks REEEEEALLY cloudy out there right now, and weather.com informs me that there is water headed my way. What if it does this tomorrow? I can't have a soggy yard sale, it wouldn't be right!

Right now the store looks like a bomb hit it. Except for the upstairs, which is almost pristine. But no one sees the upstairs, so it's a moot point. There's yard sale stuff sitting everywhere in preparation for being hauled out to the parking lot tomorrow and I haven't even brought it all downstairs. I was hoping to wait till a little later in the day, so that when people walk in, the first thing they see is not an eyeful of old toasters and random books and board games.

Aaaand that's the news for right now. I just wanted to kill a couple minutes. I'll have a newsletter to post in a bit.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

A newsletter for this week

Hello, mailing listers! Another good week was had by all, I hope? I'vecertainly been busy. I shall inform you of it, because I am sure youare pining to know.

The decision has been made to turn the upstairs of the shop into classrooms and party rooms. Yes, soon RaveKnits will be available forthrowing knitting type parties! (More news on that as it occurs.) Withthe help of Patty, Becca and Dana, all the random things that werelurking upstairs have been corralled and organized. A little more work(a table here, a chair there) and ta-da! Class space. You and your

instructors will be able to tuck yourselves away upstairs, away fromdistractions, and finally learn that complicated stitch you've beentrying to master.

That said, when you come into the shop this week, there's likely tostill be carnage from the mass cleaning, so be prepared. Yarneverywhere!

This week's sale is a Just Because I Feel Like It Sale. There are twolarge boxes full of bags of yarn. Buy a whole bag and get it half off.There's a lot of good stuff in there - cottons and linens and lightmohairs for now, heavier wools for later, lots of luscious cashmeresfor pampering yourself, felting wool just for fun, some sock yarn,crochet threads, even a knitting needle set or two, and a couplebooks. If it's in those boxes, it's half off.

I'll be open the usual hours next week: Tuesday to Friday, 10:00 to6:00, and Saturday 12:00 - 5:00. Knit Night is this Tuesday, the 17th,so don't forget! Come on by after work with the latest WIP. We'll behere till 9:00, so come have some fun with us. Also of interest: wewill have a male knitter. Come see John knit a dice bag.

I think that's all the news, unless anyone out there in mailing listerland is interested in taking home a bunch of little cardboard bins - Idon't want them anymore, and have lots sitting around. If you needhelp with some organization, these little bins are quite useful, and Ihave lots.

So yeah, that's this week's newsletter. I thought I might put it out there where people could see it. No fun pictures this week, sorry. I'm going to take pictures of the progress upstairs though, so check back.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

I had a bad day

So I was trying to do some stuff to the web site yesterday. Trying to upload some images, trying to change Featured Products, things like that. Simple stuff. Only I couldn't. Could not for the life of me figure out where Featured Products got changed. The images I got, but I think I'm going about it in a roundabout manner.

So I'm doing a time-consuming task that I feel could go faster if only I knew how. Frustrating. Can't find Featured Products. More frustrating. This goes on for a couple hours. I was ready tp throw the computer against a wall.

I didn't throw the computer against a wall. I was a good girl. I decided I would take myself away, mentally and geographically, and further decided that I would start an afghan on the machine. Patty put together a Super Bond for me (all the bits of the Bond, put together, as far as the table will let it stretch) so that I could make something big. So I picked some pleasant yarn, thought I'd get started and have something cool to show Patty who was coming to pick up some yarn about an hour later. That was the plan, anyway.

I got cast on. That was all. I could not for the life of me figure out how to thread the carriage. I knew there was something about "under" or "through". I tried three times, and three times I had to untangle and cast on again. Casting on on needles is not so bad, but it's quite frustrating on a machine, especially when you threaded the carriage wrong and it becomes locked in place. I looked in "The Machine Knitters Dictionary". Nothing. I went online. Nothing. I fumed and read Fark till Patty arrived and helped me.

While Patty was helping me, John came in and fiddled with the web site, having heard me vent at Patty about it. That problem I'd been having? That I'd been trying to fix for a chunk of the day? That was making me want to visit violence upon my computer? Yeah, he figured it out in like two minutes.

So go look at the site, www.raveknits.com, and see where the Ditto is? Front page? Yeah, John did that. But at least he showed me how, so I can do more today.

Unless I become frustrated again and go knit. But I think Eva Cassidy will help keep my blood pressure down, so maybe it'll be OK.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Look! Another post!

I looked at my website this morning. Actually looked at it and paid it attention. Guess what the front page guff says? Something about Happy New Year's. Yeah, it's been a while since I updated it. I get distracted and do other things, and the poor little site goes by the wayside.

So I got to work this morning and tried to fix it. Only I can never remember where that little bit of typing hides in the admin part of the site. Usually I give up and ask Andy, who never showed me where it gets changed, he just goes "bink" and there it is on my screen. So I hunted for AN HOUR and finally, I think, found what I was supposed to change. So I wrote some happy little fluff about summertime and socks. Only I don't know if it took. It always takes a while from the actual hitting of the "yes I want this on my site" button, and it showing up on the site. Till it actually shows up, I'm never sure I did it right.

You'd think I would know how to use this thing, but I don't. Not that part anyway.

On the agenda for today: put the bin of stuff sitting beside me on Ebay. Put the scarf on Etsy. Put some sock yarn on Etsy, because gypsyknits told me I should. Put the stuff I scanned over the weekend on the site. Scan more stuff.

Long term to-do: reorganize the patterns. The patterns were organized into master books by manufacturer. Want a Plymouth pattern? I can find that. Want a cardigan? No clue. Well, some clue, but I have to go through 18 different books and then I still miss things. So I'm going to separate them out into the different projects. Kids stuff, sweaters, shells, tanks, hats, gloves, socks, scarves, shawls, home decor, stuff like that. I think it will be great fun. Also: tidy up actual pattern drawers.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Posting, one two three

Yes, I am bad. Yes, I know. I guess I am going to update twice a year. OK, as my Middle Year's Resolution, I hereby state that I will update more often. We'll work out the details of how often later.

OK, I'll really post more often. I really will. Here's the current newsletter to keep you busy. I have to make potato salad.

Hello everyone! Are we all enjoying the unseasonably cool weather?It's lovely and gray out - perfect knitting weather.

Mark your calendars: Knit Night is this Tuesday. Last week was a smallgroup. Peaches were passed out. See the fun things that happen at KnitNight? The conversation drifted from yarn to pets to dinner to moreyarn. You, too, can get in on the fun of sitting around gabbing whileworking on the latest WIP. Come on by after work, we'll be here tillnine.

I have attached a picture of the socks I made out of Marathon. It's afun self-patterning yarn, one of the new ones from Universal Yarn.It's very easy to work with, very soft and yummy. Come in and check itout.

Don't forget about the Knitting For A Better World Basket. Donationskeep coming in in the form of little socks, sweaters and blankets.Hats, gloves and mittens are also welcome. There is literature by thebasket about different charities you can knit for, so you can chooseone that suits you and your knitting interests.

On sale this week: in honor of it just having been Flag Day, all red,white or blue yarn will be 15% off.

We'll see you at the store!

Here is sock picture goodness for you. On the agenda: put this yarn on the site. Either tomorrow or Tuesday. Probably Tuesday. Tomorrow should be cleaning day. So has it been written, so shall it be done.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Wow, I need to update more (revisited)

Yeah yeah yeah. I am very bad about updating these things. Even paper journals, I write in those about twice and then forget I had them. But hey! I have news!

Well, a lot has happened since I last posted something in, what, July? I'm not sure it counts as "news" now. I went to SAFF, the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair, for instance. I did not buy a rabbit but I did buy a wheel and have been spinning since then. I discovered a really cool yarn company and I intend to carry their yarn -affordable AND gorgeous, you can't beat that.

For Christmas I got some much-needed pegboard, so today I am rearranging so that I can bring the pegboard in and put it up. It's been rainy, so transport of the pegboard would prove disastrous. But when it arrives - hoo boy! I get to hang things! And then there will be more room in the needle room. I have a couple sofas coming my way. They will take up residence in the needle room and I will have a Knit Night once a month. Or maybe twice a month. I'll have to see how it goes.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and that you all have intentions to have a Happy New Year. Remember, don't drink and knit.